The other added, "You'd better do your courting closer to home, if you catch my meaning." With that they climbed into their patrol car, extinguished the lights and drove away.
I thought my knees would give out on me as I stumbled to the bench. Once I felt its familiar surface the full weight of what had just happened came crashing down and I cried uncontrollably.
I made several attempts to see her over the coming months, but only succeeded once—and that was just to see her; we did not get close enough to speak. Once, I walked from home on a Saturday afternoon and tried to patronize Jefferson's. Two black boys considerably bigger than I were staked outside the front door looking for me exclusively. I could see this because they were letting everybody else in without any hassle whatsoever.
